


The healing power of cats

by epersonae



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alcohol, But it's medicinal, Did I Mention Cats?, Fluff, M/M, Polyamorous fluff, Post-Canon, Really it's just a cold, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 16:20:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17963942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: Taako's coming down with a cold. Kravitz fetches help. Magnus knows some remedies. Cats are maybe less helpful, but cute!





	The healing power of cats

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nekosd43](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekosd43/gifts), [strikereurekapitcrew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/strikereurekapitcrew/gifts).



> Combining 2 prompts for the price of one: a request for Taako being taken care of by his boyfriends, and _‘ you could stay here. with me. ’_ from tumblr. (Lyx, I may still use that one for something more angsty, but I liked how it worked here.)

Taako felt like he was unraveling a little bit as he came in the door, unwinding his scarves, dropping hat and gloves on the hall table, draping coat and sweater over the back of a chair, and finally dropping  _ himself  _ into the deepest comfiest chair in the front room. 

“Ugh,” he proclaimed to the empty room, then sniffled loudly. He tried to clear his scratchy throat, and then again, to no effect, either on his throat or by anyone coming to check on him. He thought about getting up. Time for soup or something, probably. And yet — he couldn’t make himself move, sinking deeper into the chair with a long sigh.

He woke abruptly into a dark room made greyscale by his darkvision, a cat curled up in his lap purring softly. He didn’t remember either the room getting dark or the cat jumping onto him. He coughed, once, and then winced at the soreness in his throat.

“Fuck,” he croaked. Earl Grey made a little mrrp in the back of her throat and curled even tighter, pulling a bit of pant leg into her paw. “Where the fu—” But his complaint was broken by another cough, and then the dark silence of the room by a bright rift in the center of the room.

“That was bloody dreadful—” As Kravitz transitioned from his skeletal form, his work accent still came through, but then he too stopped abruptly, and his voice softened. “Oh, Taako, did someone— are you alright?” His scythe vanished in a puff of smoke as he bent over Taako and the cat, the scent of magic and smoke still clinging to him.

Taako smiled wanly at him. “Ain’t nobody did this to me but myself…” He paused, tried to laugh, and then winced. “‘Cept maybe little germ factories at school, I guess.” Kravitz’s face darkened, and then Taako did laugh, sore throat or no. “Just a cold, homeslice.”

“Should I call Merle?” asked Kravitz with a tone of alarm. Taako rolled his eyes.

“Only if you wanna see—” another pause to cough “cha’boy make faces at weird herbal concoctions. Naw, just need Lup to pull together auntie’s chicken soup, few days of sleep….” He sighed deeply, feeling the exhaustion running deep into his bones. Kravitz made a face.

“Aw, don’t even….”

“They’re on clean-up duty, a lot of souls to shepard, lot of paperwork. Sorry.”

Taako started to push himself up out of the chair, but only managed to disrupt Earl Grey, who ran off out of the room. He frowned, looking up at Kravitz, then shook his head.

“Deffo don’t have the” — he waved a hand — “all that to talk you through it.”

“What can I do?” Kravitz asked. Apparently without thought, the scythe reappeared in his hand.

“Well, don’t fuckin’ take me to Bird Mom, it’s not that bad.”

Kravitz looked at the implement of reaping, blushed, and it vanished again.

“What you can do, though….” He tapped his foot until even that felt like too much effort. “Can you go see if Maggie’s around? Boy makes a dope toddy, and that’ll be something….” He slumped back into the chair. “And I’ll just…. Ya know…. I’ll be here….”

Kravitz frowned, then scooped Taako into his arms, and with a Blink, transported them both to the bedroom, where he turned down the comforter and fluffed the pillows before tucking in Taako. He pressed an icy hand to Taako’s forehead.

“That is warmer than usual,” said Kravitz.

“Yeah….” Taako felt himself drifting in a haze. “You don’t hafta…. I got my stone of farspeech, we call him, and you could stay here. You know, with me?”

“And how is Magnus going to get here, darling?” Kravitz replied.

“Moon? Cannon?” He looked to Kravitz with pleading eyes, and Kravitz gave him a small fond smile before pressing cool lips to Taako’s cheek.

“Oh my dove. I’ll be back before you know it.” A flash, then, and the house once again falling quiet, at least until Goblin started scratching at the door to push it open and jump up onto the bed.

“Mrow?” as it began kneading the blankets near the foot of the bed.

“Everyone has left me all alone,” said Taako.

“Mew,” replied Goblin. Taako just sunk deeper into the pillows before dozing fitfully, woken less by any particular sound than by the feeling of the cat leaping off the end of the bed, shifting him ever so slightly.

“Hey,” he tried to call out, but it just emerged as a hoarse croak followed by a weak cough. But he heard the sound of familiar heavy footsteps coming up the stairs, followed by a lighter tread.

“Oh, perfect timing!” said Magnus as he came in holding a cup, the pattern of sparkling skeleton hands nearly covered by his own. Steam rose into Taako’s face as Magnus brought it close. “Careful, still pretty hot.”

Taako sniffed.

“You didn’t use that gross lemon concentrate, did you?”

Kravitz made a noise of protest, but Magnus just smiled.

“Not like you’re gonna be able to tell the difference. Drink up, baby.”

Taako harrumphed but blew across the surface before taking a careful sip. He let out a long sigh. “Fuck, my dude, that’s…. You brought the  _ good  _ whiskey.”

“‘Course I did. And lots of honey, just the way you like it.”

Taako took another sip, savoring the heaviness of the honey and the sour of the lemon, the slight burn of the whiskey against his sore throat. Magnus sat at the end of the bed and slipped Taako’s feet out from under the covers; before he could complain about cold feet, Magnus took one foot in his hands and began to slowly massage the tension out of his. Taako sighed, then looked to Kravitz, still hovering in the doorway.

“Hey there bones,” he said.

Kravitz raised an eyebrow.

“Come here,” and he patted the spot beside him on the bed. “Not like you’re gonna get sick, yeah?”

Kravitz made a face and shrugged.

“Listen, Maggie here can deffo catch a cold and he’s doin’ this shit. C’mere.” He batted his eyes, then made a face when he realized how rough and crusty they felt, and Kravitz chuckled. Kravitz sat against the headboard and Taako leaned against him, letting the coolness soak into him, a pleasant contrast to the warm toddy and Magnus’s footrub.

He took a deep inhale of the toddy steam, suppressing a little cough, then caught a distant (through stuffed up nose) whiff of something savory cooking in the kitchen below. He looked from Kravitz to Magnus.

“Lup finish up with necro-clean-up?”

“I’m making soup,” said Magnus.

“I, you, we never,” he couldn’t quite marshall his thoughts, trying to remember: maybe they had taught Magnus auntie’s recipe? It was a long time, and he was tired, and even at the best of times his memory was still pretty garbo…. He leaned his face against Kravitz, trying to let the cool clear his head. Kravitz took the cup from his hand.

“Different recipe, but still darn good,” Magnus said, a little bit of that wistfulness in his voice, and Taako just wanted to hold him until that soft distant sadness faded.

“I’m sure it’s delish, bubbeleh,” he murmured into Kravitz’s shoulder.

“When Lup gets home you can do a taste test,” said Kravitz. “You love that.”

“Mmmm,” replied Taako. “Maybe I’ll just…. Dunno…. Rest a minute?”

“Drink your toddy,” said Magnus, and Kravitz handed him the cup again. His sipping was the only sound in the room as Kravitz stroked his hair and Magnus switched to the other foot.

Creamsicle made a little yowling yelp as he jumped up, butting his head against Taako’s foot so that Magnus would pet him instead. Magnus picked up the orange and white cat and set it on Taako’s lap.

“See, everybody wants to help,” Magnus said. Taako rolled his eyes, but buried one hand in the cat’s long fur.

“Thanks,” he mumbled into the cup as he drank the last lukewarm drops. “I’m, it’s real, you know.”

“Of course, dearest,” said Kravitz.

“Yeah, we got you,” added Magnus, taking the empty cup. Taako, too weary and stuffy to think of a clever response, just let his other hand drop to the cat’s head. It pushed up against him eagerly, purring growing loud enough to fill the room.

“Now sleep?” said Kravitz.

Taako whined, pressing his head into Kravitz’s shoulder again. “Don’t gooooo.”

But already his eyes were falling closed as Magnus stood and tucked his feet back into the blanket. Kravitz lifted the cat again, and shifted just enough for Taako to slide back into the blankets and pillows.

“Jus’ five minutes,” said Taako, his face mashed into the pillow.

“We’ll be back with soup,” replied Magnus.

“Too long,” said Taako, but even as Magnus pulled the blanket over his shoulders and Kravitz kissed his forehead, he’d drifted off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Astute readers of The Reckoning Arrives and the rest of the only life you could save may notice that these are those cats.


End file.
